Brennan: Steroid cheaters should never make All-Star Game

Jul. 10, 2013
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by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

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At next week's Major League Baseball All-Star Game, an illegal synthetic testosterone user who tried to cheat his way to a better season last year will be introduced and cheered. He will receive an honor that a man who has never been caught cheating will not be allowed to have.

This is the fix that MLB and its union find themselves in as baseball's Steroids Era rages on, almost unabated. That man who has never cheated will be sitting at home, watching, as the cheater is honored by the sport that says it wants to get rid of people like him.

Why is Oakland A's pitcher Bartolo Colon, the synthetic testosterone user who was caught and suspended for 50 games last year, allowed to be in the All-Star Game this season, or any season? And why is the Tampa Bay Rays' Matt Moore, who has the same record as Colon, on the outside looking in?

Because as much as MLB's leaders try to clean up their game, the players' union lags years behind, fighting harder for the cheaters than it does for the players the cheaters shove off All-Star teams and awards dinner stages, and out of record books.

Colon, and every other performance-enhancing drug user in baseball, should never be allowed to become an All-Star, or win any MLB award. No Cy Young, no MVP, no batting title, no nothing.

It doesn't matter that he was caught and suspended last year, not this year. (Although with the reported Biogenesis suspensions still looming, the year is young.) The bottom line is, you don't suddenly become a non-cheater once your suspension is over.

Colon is 40 years old, yet he's having his best season in eight years. Where have we heard that before? Even though last year's illegal testosterone isn't still in his system, it helped build the body that he is using today, all 5-11 and 267 pounds of it. As laughable as that sounds, a slight tweak or a little help here or there is exactly what cheaters are looking for at the top levels of sport.

Because Colon and his tainted body are in the All-Star Game, someone like Moore is not. He has the same record as Colon, 12-3, but with a higher ERA, 3.42 to Colon's 2.69. We're presuming, of course, that Moore is not on PEDs, which means his season is more impressive than Colon's because it isn't built on a chemical foundation as Colon's is.

Why the players' union doesn't speak out for people like Moore is mystifying. It will fight harder for Colon and his alleged Biogenesis buddies -- Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta, Everth Cabrera, Ryan Braun, Alex Rodriguez, et. al. -- than it ever will for the poor non-cheating players who continue to quietly accept their fate.

Why the union behaves this way, and the clean players allow it, is truly puzzling. The days of Marvin Miller and Don Fehr are long gone, yet on the issue of doping, the union still wants to fight the owners more than it wants to look out for the majority of its players. What a mistake this is. Why the players stand for it is astonishing. They fight tooth and nail for millions in their contracts, for signing bonuses and performance clauses -- then stand idly by as performance-enhancing drug users take their titles and awards and honors.

Perhaps someday this will change. Someday soon, even. As MLB and the union continue to negotiate stiffer penalties for PED use, hopefully heading toward the Olympic model of two years for a first offense and a lifetime ban for a second, they also should agree to the ban on All-Star Games and all MLB awards. Once this is decided, those who vote on these things, be they the fans or baseball writers, should abide by the wishes of the league and the players.

It's a privilege to receive these honors, not a right. They are extras, add-ons, awards to be cheered. They do not belong to the Brauns, A-Rods and Colons of this world. Those players should be given absolutely nothing to celebrate.